Nolan Richardson grew up in the Segundo Barrio in South El Paso and led Western Texas to the National Junior College title in 1980 before taking Arkansas to three Final Fours.

So it was fitting that Richardson was named to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame on Monday with the Final Four in his home state.

He was elected along with seven-time NBA All-Star Alonzo Mourning, six-time NBA All-Star Mitch Richmond; coach Gary Williams, who led Maryland to the 2002 national title; and Immaculata University’s AIAW teams, which posted a 60-2 record and three national championships from 1972-74.

They joined the previously announced class of 2014: retired NBA commissioner David Stern; Bob “Slick” Leonard, the winningest coach in ABA history; Nat Clifton, the second black player to sign an NBA contract; Sarunas Marciulionis, the first Soviet player in the NBA; and Guy Rodgers, who led Temple to two Final Fours before becoming a four-time NBA All-Star.

The induction ceremony is Aug. 8 in Springfield, Mass.

Richardson enters the Hall 20 years after his Arkansas team won the NCAA championship.

A player under late Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins at Texas Western (now UTEP), Richardson also took the Razorbacks to Final Fours in 1990 and 1995. Haskins was inducted in 1997.

“I’ve joined nine Hall of Fames; this is the big one,” Richardson said. “I was told the other day that here is nothing left but heaven. To get here, you’ve got to have help and belief. Belief is probably the most important thing.”

After coaching at El Paso Bowie High, Richardson won the NJCCA national championship with Western Texas in 1980, claimed the NIT title at Tulsa in 1981, and the 1994 NCAA title with Arkansas. He is the only coach to win those three championships.

Richardson led the Razorbacks to Final Fours in 1990, 1994 and 1995 in 17 seasons at Arkansas.

“The journey that I went through is unparalleled,” Richardson said. “I started [coaching] in the seventh grade, then I got an eighth-grade job, then a ninth-grade job and a 10th-grade job. For 13 years, that’s what I did, climb to every level.

“But I’m so happy that I did go that way. A lot of guys come out of college, get a job as a part-time assistant and, next thing you know, they’re coaching at a big university. That didn’t happen with me. I think I was prepared for life more.”

When Richardson took the Arkansas job, he was the first black coach of a major university in the South and first of a men’s team in the Southwest Conference.

Richardson said he will be thinking a lot about his late daughter and son at the enshrinement. Yvonne Richardson died of leukemia at 15, and Nolan Richardson III was found dead at his home in Tulsa, Okla., two years ago at 47.

He also mentioned his former Texas Western teammates who had died.

“I know they would be so happy and delighted,” Richardson said. “I ask the good Lord to give them the message that things are good and I've done all right.”

Mourning, a two-time defensive player of the year, was among the NBA’s best shot-blockers. Richmond, the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1989, averaged more than 21 points for 10 straight years.

“You can judge me, and you can judge my game,” Richmond said. “I'm a Hall of Famer.”

Lithuania’s Marciulionis was selected by the international committee, Stern the contributors committee and Leonard the ABA committee.

The late Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, who played for the New York Knicks and Harlem Globetrotters, was chosen by the early African-American pioneers committee, and the late Guy Rodgers of Temple by the veterans committee.